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The most important device at B-school, a laptop is purchased without too much thought, through a bulk deal. A little consideration can make a world of difference to your computing experience at B-school. Most B-schools vote for one of 3-5 shortlisted models. This guide will

• Comment on how to approach the purchase decision
• List what features are important and what are overrated
• Discuss these features in detail
• Make a final recommendation

This guide is for

• Students who are managing the laptop deal on behalf of the incoming batch
• Students who are buying a laptop through this bulk deal
• Students who are buying a laptop just before joining the institute

A laptop will be used mostly for your projects and assignments (Web browsing and Office), communication (email, chat) and entertainment (movies/sitcoms, gaming). No heavy-duty software development/Photoshop work.

The Purchase Decision – Price

Buy an high-end laptop (in a bulk deal) instead of a mid-range one. No one does this. Unfortunately, year after year students opt for cheap laptops instead. They draw a psychological line at Rs. 60000. Spending about Rs. 15000 more on a laptop will give you a dramatically better laptop, and a dramatically better experience over two years. It will also be a sophisticated high-end personal laptop for 2-3 years after B-school. Relative to the total size of your loan (~6-8 Lakh), Rs.15000 is a small amount. So do the smart thing, spend that much more and get a better laptop.

Your vendor will also be willing to sell you a high-end laptop at a good discount. For one, such laptops are already sold in bulk to companies for their higher-level executives, so their actual sales price is much below the stated retail pricen. Two, the vendor gets a higher total deal size (in Rupees) as well as earns a better margin.

As for the “Company baad mein laptop deti hi hai” argument, the reality is that with very few exceptions, post-MBA companies buy the same mid-range laptops for new joinees that students do. Do yourself a favor and get a Good Laptop in B-school. Such laptops have rather high retail prices, and a bulk deal is your best opportunity to own a high-end machine at a bargain price.

The Purchase Decision – Features

Important Features
Weight and Screen resolution are what push the price of a laptop up. They are also what will make the biggest difference to your laptop experience.

• Weight (you’ll be lugging around your laptop during summers too, remember)
• Screen size and resolution (sharper displays, more screen area, more lines of text) (more)
• USB Ports (more)
• Microphone (more)

Overrated Features

• Price (see above)
• Widescreen monitors
• Processor
• Battery capacity (more)
• Hard disk (more)
• Video card (more)
• RAM (more)
• Webcam

How the ideal B-school laptop will look

• Rs. 75000 – Rs. 80000
• 2 kg weight
• 14″ non-widescreen monitor
• On-board video card with shared memory
• 80 GB hard disk
• 1.5 GB RAM
• 2 USB ports
• 6-cell Li-ion battery

Recommendation

The Lenovo T-series (currently the T61) is *the* best 14? Windows-based laptop on the market. Superb build quality, great ergonomics, best-in-class keyboard, high native resolution, light weight and plenty of processing muscle. A T-series laptop will be a bargain at Rs. 75K and won’t be obsolete for 4-5 years at least.

More about Features

Screen Size and Weight
Important! Opt for a 14″ (14 inch) laptop screen over a 15″ one. There is a noticable difference in weight. This matters because your laptop will do some serious traveling around the campus. Usually, both 14″ and 15″ screens have the same native resolution (see below), so a larger size screen will only add weight without the benefit of extra screen space. Widescreen monitors mean extra screen area but also more weight, so you’re better off without a widescreen. Note: The screen size is measured along the diagonal:

Screen Resolution

Important! Resolution is the number of pixels you can see on your screen; a higher resolution means larger screen area. This is important – you can see more lines of text (in Word), more cells (in Excel), and sharper visuals (while watching movies or gaming). A high-resolution screen can dramatically improve your laptop experience.

Common 14″ or 15″ CRT desktop monitors are capable of a resolution of 1024 pixels (horizontally) and 768 pixels (vertically), denoted as 1024×768. Low-end 14″ laptops are also capable of 1024×768. Ask for a laptop screen that does better – a resolution of 1280×1024 on a 14″ screen is very good.

Video Card and Graphics
Dedicated video card or onboard? Separate video memory or shared? For all your needs, an onboard card will be more than powerful enough. A dedicated card is a needless expense. Just make sure you have enough system RAM (see below) (back).

RAM
You can never have too much RAM. 1GB – 1.5GB is enough for most tasks. A few of you will plan to use your laptop beyond B-school; buy another 1GB chip (ask for a student discount) and fit it into your machine’s expansion slot. Note: I went through B-school with a 4-year-old 14″ IBM Thinkpad with 768MB RAM and faced no problems. It is still my primary machine. (back)

Hard Disk Capacity
80GB should be enough. In my post on Essential College Gear, I recommended buying a high-capacity external hard disk. Keep your photos, movies, videos and other large files on that disk. You will watch several movies during B-school. In fact, a ton of them. Download them from the campus server, watch them, delete them. Copy your favorite ones to your external disk. You really don’t need 100+ GB hard disks. Needless expense. (back)

Battery capacity
Most laptops will have 6-cell Li-ion batteries with 3.5 hours capacity without WiFi and 2.5 hours with WiFi when new. You don’t need the larger 9-cell batteries with 5+ hours capacity. The protrude from the back of your laptop and add to the weight. Needless expense. Keep your meetings short instead In the future, I will write about maximising the life of your laptop battery. (back)

USB Ports
Most 14″ laptops will have two USB ports. Check that you can insert two devices simultaneously into the ports (they are usually one over the other or beside each other): plug in your USB mouse and your USB Pen drive. If you need more ports, invest in a 4:1 USB expansion hub. (back)

Microphone
Choose a laptop with a built-in microphone. The Lenovo Thinkpad, for instance, has a microphone receiver just above the ESC key (or just below the CTRL key on newer models). This way, you don’t have to wear a headphone and with a speaker attachment during voice chat via, say, Google Talk. (back)

Bluetooth
A must for syncing your phone (or your friend’s phone) with your laptop. Also great for open-laptop exams where the classroom WiFi router is switched off

Kensington lock
Some vendors might include a Kensington lock for your laptop as part of the package. A Kensington lock guards against the physical theft of your laptop. Not likely to happen on campus. Ask the vendor to discard it and lower the price instead.

What else would you like to read?

• Essential B-school software
• Getting the most out of your smartphone, B-school Edition
• Maximising your laptop battery life

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You might also be interested reading:

• The Sensible College Gear Guide, B-School Edition
• Say hello to my new IBM ThinkPad!
• Netbook or notebook? No answer because it’s the wrong question
• Forgotten – the portable word processor
• Menu engineering